LGBT Issues and Vidja Games

So, you may or may not have seen the recent article about Bioware's MMO and it's struggle to remain relevant by adding a whole planet of gaiety. If not, here's a link.

I think Jim put it very well when he said,

‎"BioWare's intentions and past record doesn't make the situation cool in any way, but in a world of entertainment where "person is gay" is still considered both a joke and the punchline to the very same joke, it feels wrong to pour overwhelming scorn on a studio that's at least trying, in its own awkward way. It shouldn't be free from criticism, either, but I dare say the reaction could benefit from being a tad more tempered."

So, here's my tempered reaction: I have no lost love for Bioware. I have never particularly liked their games, aside from Mass Effect 2, so I may be a bit biased. That being said, this is just an icky, icky way to add this kind of content to a video game. Shoehorned in doesn't even begin to describe it. Not only that, but it's shoehorned in a way that even Bioware, notable for their shoehorning in of queer content, has never stooped to. I'm not even going to get into the fact that Bioware's super happy sunshine policy of queer inclusion in their games has yet to produce a transgender or gender non-conforming character (correct me if I'm wrong), not that I'd want to be represented by them.

What do you all think? This thread can springboard from this particular instance to LGBT representation in games in general.

My favorite LGBT related character is Vega from ME3. They never come right out and tell you what orientation he is. It simply does not matter because it doesn't help him kill Reapers.

Yet it's awesome how well he gets along with Steve. Now Vega is the most manly bro in the game, like a wall, while Steve goes to his commanding officer with grief issues involving his dead husband. Steve has a blatant DGAF attitude towards DADT and is able to function within a military unit regardless. This acceptance of his fellow soldiers reveals homophobia as a mental weakness. So yeah, Bioware got it right in that instance.

A good point was brought up in the comments of Jim's article: Trans people, specifically women are generally either joke characters or super over-sexualized. Atlus seems to be going in the right direction, with some obvious bumps. Spoilers for Persona 4 and Catherine:

Spoiler!

Naoto bothers me as a candidate for a trans* character, because it's made pretty darn clear she doesn't want to be a man. She doesn't experience anything like dysphoria. She just wants the respect that a male detective would garner. Then there's Erica. She seems to be treated relatively respectfully by the game's narrative. I actually didn't catch the fact that she was a trans woman when I played it. I intend to replay it sometime with my ears perked up.

A gay planet just strikes me as weird. It needs to be asked: is it supposed to be a planet that's practically a giant gay bar, or is it a planet populated entirely by homosexuals? The former can sort of make sense (but still a strange idea), but in the latter option, would new homosexuals just migrate to the planet continuously, or would they have children, either through adoption or some other means? Since children raised by same-sex parents doesn't have a significantly greater probability of becoming homosexuals themselves (think it's something like 2 per cent greater, or something), the planet would soon cease to be purely populated by gays. It's just a mess of a concept.

Wouldn't it be more organic and believeable to have gay bars on the different planets? Has any game done something like that? Had a gay bar present, not because it would be funny in a way things are only funny to homophobes, but because, of course, why not, they're common in the real world?

I honestly just wish it'd be incorporated into games more naturally and having it be less of a big deal. The sexual orientation of a character shouldn't define their every characteristic (IMO), but at the same time it shouldn't be shushed away as if this taboo thing that might never be discussed.

Because at the end of the day, the discussion is the most important thing - It's what will allow us to progress in terms of diversity in sexual orientations being represented in video games. So if developers / writers would just be able to make less of a big deal out of it while still keeping it a semi-integral characteristic for characters in video games, we might be moving in a direction where nobody thinks twice about the orientation of characters that are homosexual / asexual / transexual / bisexual / xenomorphsexual / whatever.

tl;dr video games shouldn't make a big deal out of sexual orientations but they should also not be afraid to discuss it

A good point was brought up in the comments of Jim's article: Trans people, specifically women are generally either joke characters or super over-sexualized. Atlus seems to be going in the right direction, with some obvious bumps. Spoilers for Persona 4 and Catherine:

Spoiler!

Naoto bothers me as a candidate for a trans* character, because it's made pretty darn clear she doesn't want to be a man. She doesn't experience anything like dysphoria. She just wants the respect that a male detective would garner. Then there's Erica. She seems to be treated relatively respectfully by the game's narrative. I actually didn't catch the fact that she was a trans woman when I played it. I intend to replay it sometime with my ears perked up.

Yeah, I agree with that first bit. Can't really think of too many proper female characters, atleast not any that weren't pretty heavily sexualised, you don't usually see older or unattractive women either.

All I know is there is an all gay planet. All I know is the all gay planet is on a game people should have stopped playing already.

If this makes a group of homophobes all mad then job done, I guess. I can't speak for the LGBT people of course but if I were them I wouldn't feel too offended. Many studios don't just make LGBT an afterthought but ignore it completely. Developers still have a lot of progress to make on a lot of subjects so this isn't super special.

I was just going to do a very quick reply to this but it's an issue I feel very strongly about and it kind of grew massively, this thread is called LGBT issues so I am addressing them not this one instance:

There is a far bigger issue here, that is the lack of LGBT characters in gaming in general. It is appalling we get all this "mature games" "emotional games" crap however no retail game has tangled with sexuality/gender in any significant way, the vast majority of times the only mention is jokes poking fun at the LGBT community.

I am gay and feel there is barely any representation in mainstream games for LGBT people, I'm not saying every game has to touch on these issues but when you consider the amount of games out there and yet none of them allow me to connect with a gay love story that might engage me it's staggering.

It really is amazing in this day and age with art, movies, tv and music all tackling the subject (slowly but it's a start) that games barely consider it at all. Yes people will say it's about selling games and most people are cisgender and straight but I will only point to mainstream media like Glee, Brokeback Mountain and Milk that not only deal with LGBT issues but are all very successful.

I believe that the people running these game companies are for the majority white, cisgender, straight men who are scared of losing sales by scaring what they consider their target audience - white, cisgender, straight men. Have they ever thought that they would get more sales by including other groups of people in their games, that the percentage of people turned off by diverse characters and storylines may be replaced by those who are intrigued to play a game that may for once represent their feelings.

Why not give it a try instead of churning out the same old stale shit that eventually puts your company into the ground, why not try something different with your characters instead of the same formulae of one stereotypical manly man after the girl, why not have someone transitioning genders trying to find themselves whilst fighting for the man/woman they love, that is a game that sounds interesting to me and sounds like nothing I have played before, I would much rather play this then the next Halo or Call of Duty.

At the end of the day my sexuality does not define me however it is a big part of me, of how I feel and what I think so I don't think it is out of line for myself or other LGBT people to be aggravated by not being represented by a medium that we have grown up with and are extremely passionate about. Why can't we be inclusive, who is being harmed by it, if you see two men/women kissing or gender identity being dealt with how is that going to hurt you, every game I play has straight romance and heterosexual couples embracing yet I don't automatically throw up or destroy the disc through anger. There is room in video games for straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, trangender issues, we can have them all so why limit ourselves, it is a waste and is alienating a large group of people.

I could rant all day about this and I probably haven't worded this anywhere near as well as I could or as eloquently as other people can but this is my view.

I just looked at Sterling's article and maybe I scanned it too fast and missed something, but evidently it's a self-segregated planet where all the gay aliens hang out? That's fucked up on a number of levels. I thought maybe the species was literally of one sex, like the Asari in Mass Effect. That would have almost made sense.

I believe that the people running these game companies are for the majority white, cisgender, straight men who are scared of losing sales by scaring what they consider their target audience - white, cisgender, straight men. Have they ever thought that they would get more sales by including other groups of people in their games, that the percentage of people turned off by diverse characters and storylines may be replaced by those who are intrigued to play a game that may for once represent their feelings.

I never really liked the demonization of straight white men (Although I highly doubt that was your point of it all), but this described my feelings on the topic fairly accurately. Innovation may be seen in terms of gameplay, storytelling, tech etc., but I very much agree on the fact that the industry seems to be a little too scared of taking any chances when it comes to involving social issues in games. It might be hard to do it without seeming preachy, but if they do it like I mentioned before (integrating it as something that doesn't define the game but might still be integral to a character), I really, really doubt anyone would mind it.

A good point was brought up in the comments of Jim's article: Trans people, specifically women are generally either joke characters or super over-sexualized. Atlus seems to be going in the right direction, with some obvious bumps. Spoilers for Persona 4 and Catherine:

Spoiler!

Naoto bothers me as a candidate for a trans* character, because it's made pretty darn clear she doesn't want to be a man. She doesn't experience anything like dysphoria. She just wants the respect that a male detective would garner. Then there's Erica. She seems to be treated relatively respectfully by the game's narrative. I actually didn't catch the fact that she was a trans woman when I played it. I intend to replay it sometime with my ears perked up.

Erica is frequently the butt of the joke among her mates and is outright dismissed as a woman on the basis of her birth sex. They're never called out for their treatment of her, as it is. Also "lol Toby sleeps with her but she's a man lol."

And it just makes it feel like in the Star Wars Universe all the homosexuals were rounded up and put on a pink planet. That's the dumbest shit they've pulled yet.

I was trying to be helpful, but fine... FUCK YOU TOO ;_;

Originally Posted by IsolateMutate

I never really liked the demonization of straight white men (Although I highly doubt that was your point of it all), but this described my feelings on the topic fairly accurately. Innovation may be seen in terms of gameplay, storytelling, tech etc., but I very much agree on the fact that the industry seems to be a little too scared of taking any chances when it comes to involving social issues in games. It might be hard to do it without seeming preachy, but if they do it like I mentioned before (integrating it as something that doesn't define the game but might still be integral to a character), I really, really doubt anyone would mind it.

Yeah, I don't think characters being white straight men should be a fault, but at the same time developers do need be a bit more imaginative when it comes to the design choices they make when creating a game and realise that they have a variety of options when it comes to the types of characters they create, and not just white beardy dudes. I mean they're not creating 'Midsomer Murders: The Game', so a bit of diversity won't hurt.

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